Metaphor
Chaff as a waste product from grain processing leads to a metaphorical use of the term, to refer to something seen as worthless. This is commonly used in the expression "to separate the wheat from the chaff" from Matthew 3., where it means to separate things of value from things of no value; compare also the "Parable of the Tares", which refers to a mixture of wheat and tares (a kind of weed). Another example is in Psalm 1 of the Bible, which says: "Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away".
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Famous quotes containing the word metaphor:
“Without metaphor the handling of general concepts such as culture and civilization becomes impossible, and that of disease and disorder is the obvious one for the case in point. Is not crisis itself a concept we owe to Hippocrates? In the social and cultural domain no metaphor is more apt than the pathological one.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Often in winter the end of the day is like the final metaphor in a poem celebrating death: there is no way out.”
—Agustin Gomez-Arcos (b. 1939)
“The metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)